{"title":"Obituary: Dr. Ed Lammer","authors":"Richard H. Finnell Ph.D., Gary M. Shaw Dr.Ph.","doi":"10.1002/bdra.23524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bdra.23524","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The son of an Iowa schoolteacher and milkman, Ed was a gifted athlete who received his undergraduate education at Washington University in Saint Louis and his medical training at the University of Iowa. Following his pediatric residency in Iowa City, Dr. Lammer was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA prior to pursuing a medical genetics fellowship with Dr. Lewis B. Holmes at the Mass-General in Boston, MA. Ed received additional postdoctoral training at Stanford Medical School prior to establishing a brilliant career at the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (now known as Benioff Children's Hospital Research Institute of the University of California, San Francisco) from which he retired in January, 2016.</p><p>As a pediatric geneticist and teratologist, Ed was an expert at diagnosing children with complex malformations. His keen understanding of genetics, epidemiology and teratology enabled him to make seminal contributions to the scientific literature, most notably about the risks involved to women of reproductive age being treated for cystic acne with the drug Accutane (Hoffmann-La Roche). His 1985 landmark paper in the <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> describe his evaluation of 150 Accutane compromised pregnancies and described the most serious human teratogen since Thalidomide in the 1960s. He continued to publish on risks associated with <i>in utero</i> exposure to Accutane to fully articulate the clinical manifestations of the Accutane Embryopathy, and provided a unique insight into the underlying mechanisms of how this compound interfered with normal neural crest cell migration resulting in abnormal development. Ed also provided similar clinical and scientific insights into the teratogenicity of the anti-epileptic drug Depakene (Valproic Acid; Abbott Laboratories). Leaving behind a publication record of over 165 papers and many more to follow posthumously, Ed Lammer truly embodied the spirit of the Teratology Society's F. Clarke Fraser award for gifted young investigators, as the first recipient of the award and the individual most like the namesake of this honor.</p><p>In recent years, as the Principal Investigator of multiple National Institutes of Health grants, Ed directed a research program focused on gene-environment interactions that compromised heart and craniofacial development. He collaborated widely with colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine, UC-Berkeley, UCSF, and the University of Texas, who valued his impeccable intellectual honesty and his rigorous high standards, as much as his unusual generosity. Ed was someone who lived well into the 21<sup>st</sup> century without a cell phone. Using only his trusted ‘soul pilot’ (index card in chest pocket) to monitor his time and whereabouts, Ed could always make time to chat, discuss a case, hear out an idea for a grant or provide valued input ","PeriodicalId":8983,"journal":{"name":"Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology","volume":"106 7","pages":"515-516"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/bdra.23524","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91787084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gabriella Pridjian, Patricia A. Sirois, Scott McRae, Alison F. Hinckley, Sonja A. Rasmussen, Patricia Kissinger, Pierre Buekens, Edward B. Hayes, Dan O'Leary, Stephanie Kuhn, Kenneth F. Swan, Xu Xiong, Dawn M. Wesson